EXHIBITION: Bridging Two Worlds: The Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead

"Dante's Inferno", Unknown Artist, found in Mid-Western US, circa 1940's - 1950's, Courtesy of the Stephen Romano Gallery

We are delighted to announce a new exhibition we have produced as part of our autumn residency at Green-Wood Cemetery. Entitled Bridging Two Worlds: The Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead, the exhibition will explore, via objects and artworks drawn from collection of the greater Morbid Anatomy Community and Green-Wood Historic Fund, the ways in which we conceptualize and attempt to stay in contact with the realm of the dead.

The exhibition be on from view Saturday, September 22 through Sunday, December 2 at Green-Wood Cemetery's spectacular 19th century Fort Hamilton Gatehouse, and will feature pieces ranging from a Ghanian figurative coffin to Catholic relics to outsider art to spirit photographs to contemporary fine art, drawn from The Morbid Anatomy Collection, Green-Wood Historic Fund, The Brooklyn Public Library, Stephen Romano Gallery, Cole Harrell Gallery and Invisible Gallery and the private collections of Laetitia Barbier, Doug DeFeis, Joanna Ebenstein, Erika Larsen, Sherry Kerlin, Evan Michelson, Sarah Murray, Rebecca Purcell, Shannon Taggart, Mallorie Vaudoise and Cathy Ward.

On Friday, September 21, we hope you'll join us for our opening party, where you can meet artists and collectors and enjoy music and refreshments after-hours at the cemetery; more on that here.

You can find out more about the exhibition below. Very much hope to see you there!

Bridging Two Worlds: The Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead
Saturday, September 22 - Sunday, Dec 2, 2018
Weekends 12 - 5
Free and open to the public
The Fort Hamilton Gatehouse at Green-Wood Cemetery (Hamilton Parkway and Micieli Place, F and G trains at Fort Hamilton Station or Church Street Station)
More here 

Today, many people see the death of the body as the end of life. For most of human history, however, many believed--as some still do--that the dead continued to live on after death in another, invisible world. These worlds could be bridged by individuals such as the shaman, medium, and the priest. There was also the psychopomp, whose job it was to guide the souls of the dead from this world to the next.

Bridges between the worlds could also take the form of practices, including rituals, ancestor worship, sacrificial offerings, and prayer. Some cultures even believed that there were special times of the year when the boundaries between the worlds were particularly porous, allowing the dead to pay a visit to the land of the living, such as Mexico's Day of the Dead or Chinese New Year.

Today, we continue to create metaphoric bridges between the land of the living and the land of the dead; doctors and scientists define and defy the boundaries between the worlds, while the study of history, familial and cultural traditions, the contemplation of objects from the past, and monuments we build to remember the dead--including cemeteries such as Green-Wood--create bridges that allow us to honor and stay in communion with those we have lost.

This exhibition seeks to explore the ways in which we bridge the worlds of the living and the dead via objects and artworks drawn from collection of the greater Morbid Anatomy Community and Green-Wood Historic Fund